Five Interesting Facts about Disney’s Tomorrowland

Ahead of Friday’s panel at MCM London Comic Con for Disney’s Tomorrowland, featuring actress Raffey Cassidy (Athena), here are five interesting facts about the movie.

1. The Force is strong with this fillm

The director, Brad Bird, turned down the chance to direct Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens so that he could direct Tomorrowland.

2. It’s a small world after all…

The movie is actually based on the “Tomorrowland” section at Disney theme parks, a section that was created in the 1960s and is still popular today. Part of the movie was even filmed at the “it’s a small world” ride on location in Disneyland California.

3. Blink and you’ll miss it!

In the second trailer if you look carefully enough you can catch a glimpse of the Space Mountain ride. It appears in the background at the 1:16 mark and can also be seen in the movie’s promotional poster, situated on the outer left of the town (click to enlarge).

4. Say what you see

If you look closely in scenes you can see connections to two other Disney owned franchises, Star Wars IV: A New Hope and the sci-fi classic, The Black Hole (1979).

The reference to Star Wars can be seen in the form of merchandise on display (An original Luke Skywalker action figure) in the bizarre memorabilia emporium, Blast From the Past. The reference to The Black Hole can be seen in the form of a comic of the film that appears in the same shop. Click play in the tweet below to have a look at a spoof ad for the shop and see how many cult items you can see!

Some of the memorabilia in the aforementioned Blast From the Past emporium actually belongs to the director, Brad Bird. The set itself features a wide variety of merchandise and took the set director Lin Macdonald months to curate the thousands of pieces it houses.

Tomorrowland is released in UK cinemas on Friday 22nd May. You can find out more about the movie during an exclusive panel at this weekend’s MCM London Comic Con, featuring actress Raffey Cassidy, who plays Athena in the movie. The panel takes place on Friday May 22nd at 4:30pm in the MCM Theatre Upper Platinum Suite. To find how to get to the Platinum Suite, read our article here.